With arrival of shad, say farewell to frustrations of salmon, sea lions

A wide variety of lures will catch shad, but also might hook salmon or steelhead. Be sure to pinch the barbs in the Columbia or Willamette rivers where salmon and steelhead seasons are open. Otherwise those fish might have to be released.Bill Monroe/Special to The Oregonian

Stupid salmon. Who needs them anyway...

It's spring. Trout, stocked and not, are available in nearly all directions (all, after the May opening this Saturday); halibut and lingcod are biting; chinook are offshore; summer steelhead are starting up the lower Columbia (fishing is open below Interstate 5); bass are awake; crappie never really went to sleep and best of all?

The shad are in.

From ship or shore, shad are fun to catch, especially for youngsters or beginners. They bite readily, fight hard, are pretty big and have a wide range of uses -- crab, sturgeon and halibut bait, rose garden food, etc. Some folks even eat them.

And (wait for it), sea lions mostly don't. Robin Brown of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said they seem to prefer salmon, steelhead and lamprey eels in freshwater.

The best shad spots are in current -- Oregon City, below Bonneville dam (both with bank access), Camas Slough and Coon Island on Multnomah Channel, to name a few. (And, by the way, some streams and rivers on the coast, especially the Umpqua River.)

Pinch the barbs on your shad hooks if fishing where salmon or steelhead seasons are open on the Willamette or Columbia rivers. The law requires their release if caught on barbed hooks.

FISH CAMP FOR KIDS: Looking for a place for your child to land in camp? Or land a fish? Cook it? Tie a fly? Shoot an arrow? Hike with nature?

Try (the late) Gus Kriara's Fish Camp at Camp Angelos, along the Sandy River between Troutdale and Sandy.

The week-long camp (July 7-12) offers a great experience for up to 100 kids, ages 9-14, in a pastoral 60-acre setting.

The camp costs $350. Scholarships are available on a first-come basis for those whose parents or guardians can show a need. The youngster must also submit an essay: "Why I want to learn to fish." Deadline is July 1.

CHEERS: To Steve Williams (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) and Guy Norman (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) for taking the lumps after last week's logical decisions to: 1. Get another spring chinook net season out of the way and 2. Delay a decision on sportfishing until Monday afternoon.

Even with the upriver spring salmon prediction downgraded from 141,000 to 107,500, there remained enough fish for both commercial and sport to fish some more below Bonneville Dam.

For anglers, though, the numbers meant either an immediate opening and (again) a subsequent closure about June 5 until the summer chinook season opens June 16, or delaying the opening until this Friday, to allow fishing to run uninterrupted until the summer opening.

The states wisely postponed the decision until Monday afternoon, in the hopes this weekend's Bonneville counts might let them reopen even earlier than Friday.

FRUSTRATION MAY ABATE: Angry anglers may rest easier in the next week or two as sea lions begin to depart the Columbia and Willamette systems.

Mostly males, they're headed out to sea in search of females, the only thing more important than eating. It's mating season after all.

Brown, Oregon's marine mammal biologist, said they're already leaving Bonneville for the season. He said a strong run of smelt this year seemed to draw more than ever upriver.

Brown and the states, however, are largely powerless to cope with the onslaught, short of federal permission to kill the worst offenders. Even that can't be done publicly enough to convince the others they're not wanted.

Only Congress can make significant changes in the marine mammal protection act. That isn't likely to happen, given the rest of the nation's love affair with cute and cuddly critters.

(Unless city, county and state leaders can make the case for pinnipeds as becoming dangerously brazen.)

"I'm afraid the problems in the Willamette are only going to grow, at least in the near term," Brown said.